Complaints Policy

The welfare of all individuals participating in skateboarding (including volunteers) is the concern of all members of Skateboard England.

As a National Governing Body we endeavour to make sure that any issues are dealt with in a prompt and kind way. People may not wish to voice a concern for fear of causing bad feeling. It is important to recognise that an unhelpful situation may be caused when a concern is not expressed and, therefore, not dealt with. The aim in resolving any concern or complaint is to improve quality of each individual’s experience of skateboarding. Therefore, any skateboarder, coach, volunteer or any person with a legitimate interest in the wellbeing of any participant is encouraged to voice his/her concern. We would hope that those concerned would be able to talk to one another and resolve the issue to everyone's satisfaction. If this fails or the person(s) with a complaint feels unable to do this, they should follow the procedure below.

Complaints Procedure - The way to make a complaint If you have a complaint about something that has happened (or not happened) in your skatepark or skate school, ask a member of their management committee to help you with your complaint through their set procedures. Your complaint should be dealt with within 2 days. If you are not happy with the solution that has been suggested, or your complaint is about something that has happened outside of the skatepark or skate school, you can take your complaint to Skateboard England who you trust to help you take your complaint further.

1) At an agreed time a one-to-one discussion or phone call can take place (you may bring along a friend or supporter with you). Please do not feel that you need to suffer in silence. It is much better to talk about things, even if all you needed was a sympathetic person to listen to you. We hope that this will resolve the problem. Brief records will be kept.

2) If the problem is not resolved, a further meeting will be called between 3 people from the Complaints Team (made up of members of the Board of Directors, the Safeguarding Lead Officer and senior staff) and the person making the complaint (with a supporter, if desired), to decide what to do next. At this point a statement should be completed by the complainant, and signed and dated by them.

PLEASE NOTE: In the case of complaints of serious emotional, financial, sexual or physical abuse, once the facts of the case have been established, they will be taken, along with recommendations by the Complaints team to the Directors and followed up in line with our Abuse Policy.

The investigation of your complaint is confidential. The Complaints Team need to make anyone interviewed by them aware of this, and all parties, including the complainant are required to observe this confidentiality. Breach of confidentiality may be considered as a separate disciplinary offence.

Record Keeping

· All information will be treated as confidential.

· The Complaints File will be kept in the Office.

· Information relating to complaints is available on a need-to-know basis only, with the prior consent of the complainant.

· All complaints will be recorded

If, however the issue is not resolved satisfactorily by the above means, or should it be of a serious and urgent nature, then the concern can be expressed formally in writing to Skateboard England directors. The best way to do this is to write to the designated chair of Directors who will then bring it to the attention of the board of directors.